THE WEAKNESSES OF GREAT MEX 



255 



at your fine phrases, and your business taking 

 care of itself. See what comes of dining out in- 

 stead of staying at home. You promised me, 

 too, that you wouldn't go to-day ! But everybody 

 can command you, except us. Ah ! what a man ! 

 My goodness, what a man ! " Devaines with dif- 

 ficulty kept his countenance, and lost no time in 

 beating a retreat. Next day he was not surprised 

 to learn that Diderot had managed to tear him- 

 self from his wife and daughter, and that they ap- 

 peared to be bearing his absence with resigna- 

 tion. 



The truth is, that, on a careful survey of the 

 facts, one is forced to the conclusion that Diderot 

 made the journey partly in order to escape from 

 the beloved one, who was a model of constancy 

 and devotion, but had a shrill voice, which, 

 again, was the exponent of a quick temper. He 

 was very poor, and had advertised his library for 

 sale. Catherine II. generously purchased it at its 

 full price ; then appointed Diderot its custodian, 

 at a handsome salary, fifty years of which was 

 paid in advance. It was not even required that 

 the books should be brought to St. Petersburg. 

 Diderot, however, determined to go and thank 

 the empress in person, which was no doubt a 

 graceful resolution on his part. Only there was 

 no especial reason why he should have staid 

 several months in Holland on the way, even if 

 we adsiit that the most direct route to the capi- 

 tal of the czars lay through that country. Once 

 at the court of Catherine he was petted and made 

 much of, as may well be believed ; and his de- 

 light knew no bounds. From St. Petersburg he 

 wrote to Mdlle. Voland that " while in a country 

 called the land of freemen, he felt as a slave ; 

 but now, in a country called the land of slaves, 

 he felt like a freeman." Either Diderot saw 

 things Muscovite through rose-colored spectacles, 

 or a certain orthodox empire ha^ been progress- 

 ing backward, as Americans say, for the last 

 century. 



" The first step toward philosophy," said Di- 

 derot, on his death-bed, " is incredulity." What- 

 ever may be the worth of this axiom, one is 

 tempted, after a perusal of " The Religieuse," to 

 think that an excessive credulity was among the 

 author's intellectual weaknesses. At any rate, it 

 is clear that no seandal in respect of monks or 

 nuns was too black or too improbable for Di- 

 derot to give it credit. Of course, the wish was 

 father to the belief. 



The credulous suspicion with which Diderot 

 regarded a numerous class of his fellow-beings is 

 supposed to have been the feeling with which 



Talleyrand regarded the whole human race. As 

 a matter of fact, the prince does not seem to 

 have thought so ill of our common nature ; but 

 he had a weakness for saying " good things," 

 which may be defined as bad things, about other 

 people. And one of his happiest mots was mere- 

 ly a witty reproof of that spirit which greedily 

 catches at the suggestion of a hidden motive for 

 the plainest action. Some one told him that M. 

 de Semonville had a bad cold. " What interest 

 can M. de Semonville have in catching cold ? " 

 quoth Talleyrand. Yet, if Napoleon's greatest 

 minister had been a more suspicious person than 

 he really was, there would have been some excuse 

 for him. His youth was passed in a very hot-bed 

 of intrigue and back-stairs influence ; and, if we 

 are to admit as trustworthy the evidence of 

 Chamfort (as there seems no reason why we 

 should not), Talleyrand's own mother may have 

 given him some strange lessons in the art of 

 getting on. Certainly, there was no very healthy 

 moral to be drawn from such a history as the 

 following : A woman was plaintiff or defendant — 

 it matters not which — in an action about to be 

 tried by the Parliament of Dijon. To gain her 

 cause, it seemed to her the most natural thing in 

 the world to try and get some great person to say 

 a word to the judges in her favor. With this end 

 in view she went to Paris, and begged the Keeper 

 of the Seals to intercede for her. On the keeper's 

 refusal, she applied to the Countess of Talleyrand, 

 who, taking an interest in the woman, wrote her 

 self to the minister, but with no better success 

 than her protegee. Madame de Talleyrand then 

 remembered that her son, the Abbe de Perigord 

 (the future Bishop of Autun), was somewhat of 

 a favorite with the Keeper of the Seals ; to whom, 

 accordingly, at his mother's request, the hopeful 

 young ecclesiastic was induced to write. A third 

 refusal was the result of this third application. 

 The fair litigant, with an energy worthy of a 

 better object, now determined to go to Versailles, 

 and seek to see the minister. The coach in which 

 she went was so uncomfortable that she got down 

 at Sevres, intending to walk the rest of the way. 

 She had not proceeded far before she fell in with 

 a man who, on her asking to be shown the way, 

 offered to take her by a short cut. They began 

 to talk, and she told him of her trouble. He 

 said, " To-morrow you shall have what you re- 

 quire." She looked at him, astonished, but made 

 no answer. Arrived at Versailles, she succeeded 

 in obtaining the same day an audience of the 

 minister, who, however, declined to comply with 

 her request. Meanwhile her new friend had 



